Spending too little on business travel and not enjoying enough face-time with customers are likely to cost your business in the long run.
Tightening travel budgets to cut costs isn’t an unusual reaction to ongoing economic pressures. With so many brilliant online platforms and collaboration tools available, it’s no surprise that people turn to the web and video conferencing to conduct business instead.
And yet, as a recent global Harvard Business Review survey confirms, travelling to meet in person with both existing and potential customers remains essential for building and maintaining long-term relationships as well as selling new business.
It’s therefore no surprise that despite an increased use of digital communications, more than half of the survey participants still rarely or never use video conferencing.
Spending too little on business travel is not an option
Why do executives value face-to-face meetings so much?
Success is most dependent on “in-person” meetings when…
What’s considered the most important driver of future growth worth investing in?
‘Face-to-face interactions are information-rich; we pick up how to take what someone says to us not just from their tone of voice and facial expression, but also their body language, pacing, as well as their synchronization with what we do and say.’
– Daniel Goleman, emotional intelligence expert
How to increase customer visits despite budget constraints
What’s clear from this research is that while business leaders understand the significance of healthy customer relationships to sustainable business success, they aren’t certain of technology’s role in growing these relationships.
Our customers find that our mobile sales technology contributes significantly to more face-time and better relationships with customers. B2C Premium Drinks and Interstat Stationery are two companies who are reaping the benefits of investing in sales technology that simplifies business-related travel.
B2C Premium Drinks nearly tripled customer visits
‘Daily visits nearly tripled because of the transparency provided by Skynamo,’ says Derryn Maclear, Salesforce Development Manager at B2C. ‘We have been able to assist our reps in doing more daily visits as we are able to help them plan their routes better.’
‘Skynamo is vital for growing a business, because it helps you sort out the necessary kinks before you can even think about scaling.’
Read the full B2C Premium Drinks testimonial here…
Interstat rep’s customer visits increased by more than 25%
‘We’re very finicky about doing customer visits and doing them consistently. It’s a matter of “out of sight, out of mind”. The moment you start visiting a customer less, you can immediately see a drop in their buying patterns,’ explains Interstat sales manager Lisa Joao Campbell.
Interstat sales rep, Brandon Rix, estimates that his productivity as a rep increased by about 25-30% now that he gets to each of his 100 customers at least once a month. ‘In the past, prior to using Skynamo, there was no way I’d be able to achieve that,’ he shares.
Read the full Interstat testimonial here…
Skynamo changes the sales conversation and transforms business practices in a manner that results in more face-time with customers, increasing sales and cutting various costs in the process.
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